


Security Breach

by Fiorea



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Corruption, Detective!Levi, Eren can be a little shit, M/M, Mercenaries, Minor Character Death, Murder, Organized Crime, Slow Build, Spies & Secret Agents, Top Levi (Shingeki no Kyojin), Violence, but Levi gives as good as he gets, future smut, lots of sass, not angst
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-11-14
Updated: 2016-01-23
Packaged: 2018-05-01 14:57:55
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 15,689
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5210210
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fiorea/pseuds/Fiorea
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Eren and his best friends legally rob vaults for a living. Keyword: legally. He was hoping for a change of pace, but murder, conspiracy, and an irritable detective were not what he had in mind.</p>
<p>-----</p>
<p>
  <i>“You heard me,” the raven-haired man said that cool, collected way that pricked Eren’s nerves, “I want your sorry ass on my investigation team to catch the dickheads that robbed the casino.”</i>
</p>
<p>
  <i>“No fucking way. I won’t endanger my family because you’re too dumb to figure it out yourself."</i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue - Robbed

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know almost NOTHING about law, criminology, vaults, engineering, or pretty much anything in this story…

**Chapter 1: Prologue - Robbed**

Gloved fingers carefully but quickly eased the heavy box halfway out of its 10-inch x 3-inch x 22-inch slot in the wall. The hand reached in to remove a heavy, rectangular package neatly wrapped in brown paper. After stuffing the package securely in his backpack, the man in sleek, dark-gray attire smoothly slid the box back into the slot and swung the metal flap shut, a light click indicating the automatic lock sliding back into place. He checked his watch as he twisted the small golden key out of the keyhole before glancing up at the surveillance camera in the corner of the open room and flashing his fingers through several quick hand signs. Half a second later, the great circular door slowly clanked open with a quiet woosh of air being sucked out, and the man padded silently across the tiled floor. He stilled at the door, not touching or reaching past the thick, shiny frame, impatiently waiting for a signal.

_Hurry, 21 seconds left_ , he thought.

When there was a gap wide enough for two men to walk through side-by-side, he heard an almost inaudible buzz indicating the lasers being disabled. He moved without hesitation, nimbly dashing through the opening and stopped right outside.

_17 seconds left._

Suppressing the urge to tap his foot, he waited again, this time in front of a partially dismantled keypad embedded in the wall, as the door reversed its direction without prompting and sunk back into place with an echoing thud. The handheld touchscreen device he whipped out was missing its back cover and had a short, rubber-coated cable dangling from inside. He pressed the fake fingerprint on his gloved left ring finger to the screen, punched in an 11-digit number into the wall keypad, and hastily but carefully lifted the keys to reveal the green motherboard. He lightly detached the cable connecting the keys. Pinching the end of the cable dangling from his handheld device, he plugged it into the now empty slot. The moment the electrical current connected, long familiar lines of binary 0’s and 1’s flooded across both the touchscreen and keypad display, manipulating the intricate locks to settle back in place with a resounding clank. Tense seconds ticked by as the 0’s and 1’s continued to flicker. Suddenly, both displays blanked and the light in the hall dimmed.

Glancing down at his watch again, the man breathed out a shuddering sigh of relief. _3 seconds before forced lockdown. Just made it._

Now he had as much time as he needed to put everything back in place, return the handheld device to its dock in the security room and meet up with his ops partner, as long as he passed back through the weight-sensitive tiles, moving lasers, four second-shift security guards, and another encrypted door without detection. _Mikasa is definitely running the next assignment. This stress is bad for my heart._

_~~~~~_

Climbing into the back of the van with a tired groan, Eren tossed the textbook-sized object to his other partner in crime – it was just that, a textbook. Under the brown wrapping was a thick, worn hardcover textbook teaching the industrial applications of programmable language controllers, one of the books Armin had studied years ago to become a critical part of their three-man vault-breaking team.

Armin caught the book with a quiet ‘omph’ and sent his best friend a sympathetic look. “Good job, Eren. We cut it close this time, but it was a near-perfect bank heist. Let me pull out of their system and then we can head out.”

“Thanks for the backup. Seems like your binary code breaker got faster.” Eren ungloved a hand and rubbed his face roughly, letting out a tired sigh. “You know, this job would be so much more satisfying if we actually got to steal something worthwhile.” Mikasa, who had slipped into the van behind her brother in time to hear his recurring complaint, hid the upward quirk of her lips as she wrapped her red scarf back around her neck.

“Hey! This book is worth its weight in gold. It may be a little out of date, but it’s one of the best textbooks on logic ladders. I still reference it when designing new vault systems,” the blond-haired man defended steadfastly.

“Yeah, yeah, I know. I read it too.” Eren shot over a fond grin. “Just do your genius computer thing and let’s get out of here. We still have to report in before we get to go home. I’m starving and I wanna get paid.”

~~~~~

On the other side of the city of Sina, the sharp ringing of a generic ringtone sliced through the silent apartment bedroom. A lump in the wide bed growled as a hand shot out to snatch the offending phone from the nightstand. It let out a curse as the caller ID flashed his superior’s name.

“What the fuck is your goddamned problem?”

_“Is that any way to greet your friend, Levi?”_

“You’re not a friend when you wake me at 4 fuckin’ AM. What do you want, Erwin?”

A tired sigh could be heard from the other end of the phone. _“We just received a call about a vault robbery. The Grand Hermiha Casino was robbed of-”_

Levi cut him off sharply, “Cut to the chase. You wouldn’t call me for a simple burglary.”

Erwin chuckled, _“Sharp as always. They left a string of bodies and an additional safe was emptied. Come to the station and I’ll explain in further detail.”_

Levi sat up with a groan. “Can’t criminals get their fix during proper business hours? I’m going to rip them a new one when I get my hands them.” He hung up without waiting for a reply and considered sliding back under the covers for another five minutes but paused when the phone chimed. The message that appeared on the screen read, _Don’t fall back asleep._

With an irritated click of the tongue, Levi typed a response: _Coffee better be ready. The good kind or I’ll wax your precious eyebrows._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What do you think? This is hopefully going to be a thrilling one.
> 
> November 14, 2015


	2. Penetration Testers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Levi is not a morning person and neither is Eren. Dead people don't help either of their moods.

**Chapter 2: Penetration Testers**

Detective Levi Ackerman nursed a steaming paper cup between his hands as he looked around Erwin’s familiar office with a bored expression. From his place against the back wall, he absently listened to the blond man finish briefing the four officers situated in front of the large desk.

It had been half an hour since he arrived at Sina Police Station. Erwin had handed each of them a copy of the forensics team’s preliminary report. There were five dead casino employees, a badly damaged vault, 3 million dollars missing, and an emptied safe. The vault’s security system had been hacked to shambles to the point where much of the hardware had short-circuited or jammed and the program needed to be reinstalled from scratch, not that it mattered since they would need to overhaul the entire system because it had already been compromised.

The report provided little information on the perpetrators. Although they had left significant evidence of their destructive infiltration, they had left almost no trace of themselves. Even the single footage of the getaway they managed to find so far was by accident. The thieves seemed to know all blind spots and maneuvered expertly around the security cameras, but there was a moment where the vehicle swerved out of the way of what looked like a small animal in the road which allowed a glimpse of a white van.

“You are dismissed. Levi, stay behind,” Erwin called out as he shuffled papers back into a folder. The raven-haired detective pushed himself from the wall and waited until the four officers filed out of the room.

“What aren’t you telling us?” Levi questioned, his brow furrowed.

Erwin gave an apologetic smile, “I have a hunch, but I can’t say anything until more comes to light. I don’t want to bias you.” The shorter man gave a momentary glare but trusted his superior and long-time friend enough to acquiesce for now. “Those four are stuck at the station for the next several days writing up their last case so you’re free to use them as needed. I want you to head to the site. See if you can pick out anything forensics didn’t catch.”

“Incompetent shits.” Levi turned towards the door and tossed his empty cup into the trash bin. “I want Hanji on this case.” Ignoring Erwin’s noncommittal hum, he stepped into the empty hall and made his way down to a lower floor and into a large room filled with desks. He spotted the four officers, all with tired, drooping shoulders. “Oi, you four. Get the fuck home and sleep. Be back in five hours ready to work properly.” Without another word, he left for the Grand Hermiha Casino.

~~~~~

The forensics report didn’t do the actual damage justice; the destruction was greater than he imagined. While dust had settled and the hardware was no longer smoking, rubble, blood, and char could be found throughout the sublevels of the building. It looked like something had bulldozed its way through the place, smashing and slashing everything in its path.

Levi tugged on a pair of latex gloves as he knelt down next to the body of a security guard lying on his back. He grimaced at the gore spilling onto the waxed, off-white floor. The man’s side looked as if a large portion had been torn out. The tattered cloth and skin was still partially attached, but the insides were a mess of shredded meat and chunks. He stood and motioned for the officer to lead him to the next body located in the surveillance room. At one of the two workstations, a black office chair was toppled over and an uncapped bottle of water had fallen to the floor leaving a fading stain on the navy blue carpet.

The corpse, a surveillance officer sprawled against the side of the workstation as if someone had propped him there, had a wound located on his upper left torso near the armpit. Levi pinched a tattered corner of the bloodied fabric to lift it from the skin but couldn’t make out much beneath the drying blood. Unlike the first body, the shirt and flesh were not torn off. It looked more like a gunshot that had spread outward and burst through the skin. The open wound was smaller, presumably because the shot had been partially encased by the ribs, but there was a larger spread of blood under the body from where, he hypothesized, the auxiliary artery passing through the armpit may have been severed.

The third victim was a janitor lying face down outside a restroom. A red stain bloomed over his beige polo shirt near the center of his back. The single hole in the shirt confirmed that the man had been killed by a bullet. Levi unscheathed a pocketknife from his belt and glanced at the officer standing behind him. Receiving a nod, he deftly sliced the shirt open to reveal dark bruises covering the entire upper back. Purple blotches marred the skin and there were areas that bulged outward. However, the only open wound was the entry point of the bullet, but it looked too large to match the hole on the shirt. Levi pressed a finger to one of the bulges and found that it was soft, almost mushy, unlike typical corpses which stiffened over time.

“How long has he been dead?” Levi asked the officer.

“About three hours, sir.”

The detective rose to his feet. _The muscles shouldn’t be this soft_ , he thought. _Rigor mortis should be setting in by now._

The last two had similar injuries, one above the pelvis and the other also at his side. The injuries almost looked like a small explosion had gone off inside the bodies. He had never seen anything like it, and he didn’t know of any weapon that caused such injuries. The shredded insides, the bruising, the soft flesh. What was going on?

Levi was next led to the front of the giant vault. He trailed his eyes around the thick door and the frame. The door, though still hinged to the wall, looked to have undergone explosions around its perimeter, as if blasted out of the frame, leaving jagged edges and heavily malformed metal. The inside of the vault, however, was a completely different story. He peered inside to see that the room was in pristine condition. Not a single thing was damaged or out of place. _Are these assholes bipolar or something?_

Walking between the rows of metal safes to the back of the vault, he saw that the only other evidence indicating a breach was the open flap of a small safety deposit box at around chest height.

“The flap wasn’t fully closed. Apparently, these safes need the security system to lock back up but they shut that down so…,” the officer explained hesitantly, not completely understanding it himself.

Using the hand that had not touched the corpses, Levi pulled out the box to look into the empty space but, as expected, saw nothing indicating the contents. “Whose name is this under?”

“Someone with the initials D.S. but that’s all we have. The account number, personal info, fingerprints, and iris scans were in the hacked security system. You’ll need an expert to recover the information, if there’s anything left at all.”

Levi gave a grim nod of thanks and strode out, stopping along the way to study the stairwell doors, two walls, and a window on the first floor, which had all been blasted open to make their exit. _Someone sure is trigger-happy._

The sky was already bright as he picked his way around the perimeter of the casino. Just as he decided nothing more could be gleaned from staring at rubble and pavement, his phone rang. He peeled off the rubber gloves and pulled the device out of his long, black coat. Erwin.

“What did you find?” Levi asked.

_“We got another shot of the van, this time with the license plate. We’re looking for a match now. We should have something by the time you return. How about you?”_

“These shoplifters love their explosives. Their guns even use some type of exploding bullet. I want Hanji to try and find even a shard of the bullet. I repeat, _Hanji_.” Levi paused for emphasis. “Erwin, don’t give me a dimwit like last time; Jack or Jake or whatever his name was. A fucking 3-year-old could have done a better job.” He sneered at the memory. “I also need a hacker to piece together whatever’s left of this security program. Oh, and start working on getting a damn search warrant.”

~~~~~

Levi had a nagging feeling that some piece was missing.

Shortly after he made it back to the station, they matched the van to a Mikasa Yeager, 24-year-old female living in the eastern part of Ovrud, Sina’s industrial district. She had a younger brother, Eren Yeager, and no other family. No criminal background, graduated from the prestigious Mitras University. The brother was also 24 and a Mitras University graduate, no criminal background, registered owner of a company called Recon Inc. Their public social media accounts were sparse but innocuous, with several smiling pictures of themselves and a blond young man who looked to have graduated from the same university.

The profiles didn’t match the typical criminal. The two looked like bright, ambitious kids on their way to success. The only thing questionable was the company. They found next to nothing on Recon Inc. – no website, nothing from web searches except the standard business registration records showing it was established during Eren’s last year at Mitras U. Perhaps the company was created merely for tax purposes, or perhaps they never got around to doing anything with it.

He was again in Erwin’s office nursing a cup of coffee.

“The footage of the van was pure coincidence,” Erwin explained, sliding over a pixilated picture. “A patrol team was called in about a knife fight at a gas station along the border of Hermiha and Mitras districts. The team was reviewing the security tapes and the van happened to pass by right before the fight. They heard the search alert for a white van over our radio and passed the tape to us.”

Levi leaned back in the uncomfortable chair and said nothing for a few seconds before stating flatly, “They don’t fit the profile.”

Erwin sighed, “It’s the only lead we have. The van matches, the time matches, and the location makes sense.”

“But they were meticulous at the casino. They were able to cripple the system and get around all the blind spots. Why would they slip up with something as obvious as a license plate?”

“The van could have been stolen. Maybe they’re trying to throw us off. But we won’t know if we don’t investigate. You know this very well, Levi.”

The dark-haired man shot his friend a glare. “Don’t patronize me. Shut up and get that warrant signed if you’re going to be a dick.”

That caused a slight upward twitch of Erwin’s lips. “Go pick up some breakfast. You seem a little cranky this morning. Your blood sugar mi-,” he caught the crumpled paper cup flung at his face and let out a laugh at the offensive middle finger thrust toward him as Levi stalked out the door.

~~~~~

The search warrant was approved without a hitch. As soon as his temporary squad returned to the station at 10am, Levi briefed them on the situation and dragged them out the door. He, Petra Ral, and Oluo Bozado rode in a car while Gunther Schultz and Eld Jinn followed behind in another.

The city of Sina was made up of five districts: Ovrud in the north, Stohess in the east, Hermiha in the south, Yalkell in the west, and Mitras at the center. Of these, Orvud was the poorest and least urbanized, home of Sina’s industrial district and majority of blue-collar jobs. Just inside its borders, remodeled housing and newly established boutique businesses mixed among deteriorating buildings and smatterings of graffiti showed the creep of gentrification. However, as they drove deeper in, the frequency of warehouses, factories, and manufacturing plants increased.

Unlike the vibrant Stohess District where Levi’s own apartment was located, these streets were worn and dingy, and a dreary gray and dull brown color scheme blanketed the buildings. He wondered what caused the brats to live in the ghettoes and tried to stop himself from jumping to the conclusion that perhaps these kids actually were the bad sort.

The two cars slowed as they neared the Yeager residence and parked on the streets a block away. Mid-morning in the industrial district had few people milling around and more trucks than personal cars passing through. The fact that no one paid the detective and four officers any mind as they walked to the three-story brick apartment building indicated how familiar the sight was in these areas.

The officers behind Levi tensed when they saw the white van with the matching license plate parked at the far end of the block, just sitting out in the open, undisguised and unhidden. At the slight tilt of Levi’s head, they split into two teams, Gunther and Eld circling around the back and the remaining three heading up the main entrance. They approached the dirty glass door with a buzzer on the wall next to the keyhole. It didn’t take long for the dark-haired man to pick the pitiful lock. He pressed down on the handle to pull the door open and stepped into a hallway dimly lit by a flickering ceiling lamp. From the inside, they could see that the building was a three-story walk-up with two units on each level. Levi cringed at the stained walls and grime caked on the corners of the tiled floor. When was the last time anyone cleaned this filthy place?

Keeping the entrance propped open for Gunther and Eld, the three quietly made their way over to the back of the hall and stopped in front of the green door labeled 1B. Levi unholstered his gun and held it firmly in his right hand, pointing it at the ground and positioned slightly behind his body but ready to raise at any second. He gestured for the two officers to stand to the sides of the door so only he would be visible through the eyehole.

Raising his left hand, he rapped his knuckles against the door loudly and took a step back to give himself space. No answer. God he hated the knock-and-announce rule. It would be so much easier to pick the lock and give themselves the element of surprise.

He was about to knock again, when the deadbolt suddenly slid out of place and the door opened as far as the chain would allow to partially reveal the blank face of a woman in her early twenties. He recognized her as Mikasa Yeager from the pictures.

“Sina Police. I’m detective Levi Ackerman” Levi said with an equally blank face. “You are suspected of breaking and entering, theft, and murder. I am here to bring you in for questioni-“

Before he finished, her eyes fell to Levi’s half-hidden hand and widened slightly as she spotted the gun. Faster than he could react, she slammed the door and slid the deadbolt back in place. _Motherfucker._

Petra immediately spoke into the radio, “Gunther, Eld, we’ve been denied entry. Watch the windows!”

“You have until the count of three to open this door,” Levi called out, aiming his gun at the lock. His patience was wearing thin. “Or we will shoot the fuck out of it.”

But before he could begin to count, they heard a muffled shout of, “Eren! Get up! What did you DO?!” Seconds later, he heard the sound of the chain unhooking and the sliding of the deadbolt. This time, the door opened fully to the woman who now wore a half angry, half worried expression. Her voice, however, was perfectly steady as she invited them in. “I apologize. Please come in, along with the others that must be stationed nearby.”

She didn’t blink when Petra and Oluo stepped into view or when Petra lifted the radio to inform the two men outside. She merely straightened her red scarf and said, “Please put away your guns, remove your shoes, and take a seat on the couch. Eren will be out shortly. Would you like anything to drink?” They did everything but holster their weapons.

This must have been the oddest entry and search situation in Levi’s four years on the force, especially when, after setting down three mugs of tea on the birch coffee table in front of them, the girl dragged a half-dead kid who must be Eren Yeager into the living room by his ear. He was only dressed in low-hanging gray sweatpants and was trying to pull on a red t-shirt over his lean but muscled chest, an impossible task with his sister tugging on his ear.

“G’morning,” Yeager mumbled absently in a voice still rough with sleep as he plopped down on the recliner at one end of the table. He pressed his palms to his exhaustion-laden eyes. “I would have gotten up in 5 minutes,” he said with a yawn. He managed to pull on the shirt but didn’t notice that it was inside out. “Why does Armin get to stay in bed?”

“Because Armin wouldn’t have done anything to cause trouble. You, on the other hand, are probably the reason why we have guests.” Only then did the boy notice three people situated shoulder to shoulder on his couch holding handguns. He did a double take, and the remnants of sleep instantly cleared from his eyes. “Wha…?”

But obviously his brain hadn’t fully woken yet. By this point, Levi had strong doubts about this idiot being the perpetrator, but you could never be sure about their acting skills.

He saw movement in his peripheral vision and tensed when someone else walked into the room. It was the blond-haired kid from the pictures, the Armin they had mentioned in their bickering. He was fully dressed and holding a rectangular object wrapped in brown paper. Shooting the three on the couch a nervous smile, he introduced himself as Armin Arlert and pulled four chairs from the kitchen table to set around the coffee table. “I saw your friends from the window,” was all he said before sitting down across from them.

Once all eight people had settled in their seats, an awkward silence fell over the room. Usually, Levi would have gotten straight to the point, but watching Eren’s changing expressions as he fidgeted was more telling.

“So what do you guys want?” The kid finally blurted out.

Mikasa reached over to shake his shoulder. “Wake up, Eren. You need to make a good impression since they want to arrest you.”

“Huh?” The boy immediately sat up, his demeanor becoming alert and serious. “On what charges?” Levi hid a grimace at the sudden change. He hated dealing with temperamental people; they tended to clash with his own poor social skills.

“Breaking and entering, property damage, theft, and murder,” the detective listed off.

“What!?” Eren exclaimed.

“The Grand Hermiha Casino was robbed last night. There are 3 million dollars missing and five dead.”

“That wasn’t us!”

“There is no denying that the white getaway van is registered under Mikasa Yeager and sitting outside this building.”

“Then you’ve got the wrong van,” Eren insisted, looking peeved at the insinuations. “We didn’t do it. I swear.”

“There is video footage of the van as you were leaving the casino. We have a warrant to search both the van and this residence. Tell us what you did last night.”

“It. Wasn’t. Us.” Eren repeated. “We robbed a _bank_ last night, not a casino.”

Everyone froze.

.

.

.

_What the fuck?_ Levi fought to keep the bemusement off his face and gripped his gun tighter. What dumbass confessed to a crime while being suspected of a similar crime? This one apparently. “Yeager- Care to elaborate?” He asked in a deceptively detached voice laced with a threatening undertone.

Arlert groaned and dropped his face into his hands, wearily breathing out Eren's name on his way down.

“I mean, what I’m trying to say is. Last night, um, we don’t even know where Hermiha Casino is,” the brunet stumbled through his words, ruffling his hopelessly messy hair and looking flustered from his slipup.

The blond boy spoke up after a long-suffering sigh. “Please excuse Eren’s absentmindedness, sir. He isn’t a morning person. What he’s trying to say is, we can prove that we were not at the Grand Hermiha Casino last night.”

“And the bank?” Levi raised an eyebrow but showed none of the impatience growing inside. The kid must have sensed something though, because he immediately launched into an explanation.

“Seeing as you found us, I’m sure you know that Eren is the owner of a company called Recon Inc.” Armin looked to the five guests for confirmation and received a nod from the detective. “I’ll also assume you found nothing on Recon,” he continued, taking a sip from the mug to hide a satisfied smile at the detective’s expressionless face. “The service we provide is legal, but it can be mistaken for crime if taken out of context. We are penetration testers serving high-end clientele, typically banks, casinos, and nobility, to test the security of their vaults. Our job is to infiltrate, steal an object, and get out without causing major damage or being caught. Basically, we’re paid to break into vaults.”

"Penetration testers… That’s a real job?” Eld voiced his team’s incredulity.

“Yeah, and we’re damn good at it,” Eren said with a cheeky grin.

Armin ignored the comment. “For our latest job, we were hired by West Hermiha Bank. We spent around a week observing and infiltrating their network. Last night was the actual break-in operation and this is what we retrieved.” He reached for the rectangular object lying innocently on the table. Slipping a finger under the tape, he peeled off the brown wrapping to reveal a thick, hardcover book. All five officers leaned forward for a closer look. The raven-haired man carefully flipped it open and saw the flimsy pages of an old textbook, heavily marked with handwritten notes and a doodle of a grotesque giant in the corner. It was a pretty good doodle too.

Levi couldn’t help the fleeting thought that a textbook was a piss poor prize for all the effort put into a theft, and he wondered if the monetary compensation made up for the anticlimactic ending. IF they were telling the truth. But he, against all his detective’s paranoia and experience with slippery criminals, was 80% convinced of their innocence even before seeing hard evidence.

Leaning back on the couch and lazily crossing his legs, Levi directed his flat gaze to Eren who stared back intently. “What’s your alibi?”

The kid frowned at the skepticism in Levi’s words. “We have GPS tracking on the van and our persons while we work, footage of the operation, a few pieces of hardware that were left behind at the bank, a calling card that we always leave, the guards we knocked out, the contract signed by our client. Is that enough?”

“We do our best to keep detailed records of all operations, not only for the final report but also in case the client turns around and accuses us of committing a crime,” Armin explained. “It’s happened in history, so we like to cover our bases.”

“Can you show us now?” Levi asked, somewhat impressed.

The blond frowned. “We’ve been asleep since getting back around six hours ago, so we haven’t had time to consolidate. You’ll also probably need our client’s release to view anything about the vault.”

“Not necessarily,” Mikasa interjected. “If the evidence is seized as part of this search, there are no legal repercussions. However,” she crossed her arms, exuding hostility, “we kindly request that you first acquire our client’s permission. Recon Inc. runs a sensitive business, and we have a reputation to uphold.”

There seemed to be an unspoken “or else” hanging in the air.

A clearing of the throat from the side dispersed the tension. “So, can you tell us about the casino heist? Since we’re being accused and all,” Eren said with a curious tilt of his head. “I want to know how we compare to the real deal.”

Levi rolled his eyes. “Judging from the dead bodies, the robbery took place at around 3am. They hacked the system and got in without tripping a single alarm. After taking what they wanted from the vault, they blasted their way out. People noticed after they blew a hole in the first wall. They realized it wasn’t an earthquake after the second wall went down.”

Eren looked momentarily star-struck but then turned away with an expression of mild disgust. “I’ve always dreamed of blowing up a building, but not on a job. And never a building in use. There’s no finesse or respect in that. Any idiot can bash their way through. It’s when you can slip in and out without a trace that you know you’re doing it right,” he said passionately, his eyes shining with pride and resolve.

_And that’s why you aren’t the culprit. Not bad, brat._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: What do you think?
> 
> I swear, “penetration tester” is a real job title – no pun intended haha!
> 
> November 14, 2015


	3. James Bond Shit

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Team Recon has a secret base. It's not as cool as MI6, but that isn't a fair comparison.

**Chapter 3: James Bond Shit**

Levi watched the three hosts gathered at the other side of the living room conferring among themselves in whispers. They were turned away so he couldn’t see their facial expressions or read their lips, but their backs gave enough information about each of their attitudes.

Armin, who was doing majority of the talking, was occasionally gesturing with his hands to emphasize whatever he was saying and had his back hunched worriedly. Mikasa’s posture was straight and confident, but the crossed arms and sharp shakes of her head showed disapproval. Eren had his hands loosely shoved in the pockets of his sweatpants, shrugging or nodding at times and providing verbal input whenever the other two turned their heads to him questioningly; he appeared to be untroubled by the situation as he placed a hand on Armin’s shoulder in what looked like a reassuring manner.

As the trio turned around after a final nod from Eren and a sigh from Armin, Levi concluded that they, consciously or not, considered Eren the de facto leader even though he seemed the least reliable of the three. _Interesting._

“Alright, follow us. We’ll show you Recon’s headquarters,” the brunette said and pointed his thumb at Armin who was heading towards the front door. The officers stood with suspicion when they realized they would be leaving the apartment. These three were technically still murder suspects; they could be leading them into a trap…

The blond waved the impromptu guests over as he twisted the shiny metal doorknob, which Levi only now noticed to look out of place. In fact, the doorframe and door itself also looked too new compared to the rest of the aged interior. Drifting to the back of the group, he took an extra few moments to study the setup as he slipped on his shoes.

The door was made of a heavy material that was definitely thicker and sturdier than wood. The inner latch was different from the standard design; there were two latches instead of one, spaced apart by several inches. The single thumbturn for the deadbolt also looked to control two thick bolts spaced approximately one foot above and below the thumbturn.

Levi realized belatedly that if they had needed to enter by force, shooting the two keyholes with his gun would have done nothing to open the door.

Eren, who was holding the door open, smirked knowingly at him. “It’s a custom design. The frame and parts of the door are steel-reinforced concrete – the stuff vaults are made of. One of our first projects when we got into this business.”

Levi raised his eyebrow as he walked past. “Should I be worried about you doing illegal shit that needs this much security?”

The boy let the door swing shut with barely a click. “I just thought it would be fun. Nothing sketchy going on. Honest.” He fell into step next to the detective as they walked down the hall.

Levi snorted to express his skepticism. “Alright, show me this secret kiddy base.”

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the brunette looking slightly affronted and visibly holding back a retort. “We’re not suspects anymore?”

“Don’t get your hopes up, brat. You still haven’t proven anything.”

Eren huffed as he moved in front of Levi to “graciously” hold open the door of apartment 1A with a mocking bow.

“No trap door with hidden elevators, iris scans, and James Bond shit?” Levi commented sarcastically.

“Stop griping, old man. Just go in and be impressed.”

And impressed he was. Stepping past the entry hall into the living room, he could see that Unit 1A was larger and had more open space than 1B. The living room had been converted into a makeshift gym with blue carpet flooring and all kinds of exercise equipment scattered along the walls and hanging from the ceiling. There was even a gymnastics balance beam running down the length of the room. The blinds were closed, but ceiling lights brightly illuminated the space.

Gunther whistled.

“This, as you can see, is our gym,” Armin told them. “The job requires us to stay in shape. It’s mainly used by Eren and Mikasa.”

He led the group around the mat, past the small kitchen, into a side hall leading to individual rooms. He ignored the first three doors and went straight to the end of the hall. Inside was electronics galore. Stacked monitors, computers, laptops, servers, cords, spare parts, anything a tech junkie would want. Against a wall were two large bookshelves filled with books, papers, and notebooks.

“This is my domain,” Armin said fondly. “This is where I create and break security systems. This is also where we compile our post-ops material. Of course, everything is protected under heavy encryption.

“The other three doors are Eren’s and Mikasa’s rooms and the bathroom. Eren builds the gear and gadgets while Mikasa plays with chemical compounds. We’re a pretty well-rounded team.”

He sat down in a comfortable-looking office chair and booted up a large computer under the desk. The hulking tower started to hum as electricity flowed through its body and the cooling fans began spinning. Six monitor screens flickered to life in front of them. He swiveled around to face the group. “I call this beast Colossus. I built it specifically to handle massive real-time computing.”

“Armin is a genius,” Eren chimed in proudly. “He’s already doing research collaborations on quantum computing and a bunch of really advanced math.”

The blond swiveled back around in his chair to hide his blush, unaccustomed to being complimented in front of others. “A-Anyway, I’ll pull up the GPS tracing and videos of last night’s operation. We can play it back from the time we left home to when we returned, which is between 1am and 5am.” He fingers blurred over the keys of his keyboard as he cleared multiple layers of security. It was the fastest Levi had seen anyone type.

“Please take a look at monitors 3 and 6.” Armin pointed at the top right screen after loading a program showing a map of Sina. The audience of seven crowded around his chair as he typed a few lines of code, and the window zoomed in on eastern Ovrud where four dots in green, blue, red, and purple were clustered. Before starting the playback, he opened another program in the bottom right monitor. It looked like a professional video player, which showed nothing until a few taps on the keyboard brought up a shot of the darkened street in front of their apartment.

“I’ll play both in tandem so you can see the street view and bird’s eye view of our movements. I’m blue, Eren is green, Mikasa is red, and the van is purple.” Armin typed into the command line and both screens began to move. They watched in silence as the blue, green and red dots moved to overlap with the purple, and when the purple dot began to move down the street, the video in monitor #6 began moving as well.

The video sped through Orvud, passing warehouses and factories. Within two minutes, the dot had crossed the border into Mitras where tall office buildings and high-rise apartments towered over the streets. Within another minute, the van had driven by one of Hermiha’s major shopping areas and into a back alley.

When Armin clicked a button on the screen, the movements on both monitors slowed. With another click, the audio turned on.

Eren in the video was speaking into the camera. _“-now 1:37am on Thursday, October22 nd. We made it to West Hermiha Bank right on schedule. Armin, how long will it take to connect?” The camera was flipped to face inside the van. Monitors lined one side of the interior like a while Eren and Mikasa sat against the other side, unbuckling their seatbelts. There was a thud indicating the driver side door closing, and a few seconds later, the back of the van opened allowing Armin to climb in._

_He took a seat on a cushioned stool and studied the monitors. “Let’s see…around 10 minutes, and another 10 to take over. Syncing the timing is a little tricky. It looks like they haven’t noticed your addition to their servers. Good job on that, by the way.”_

_“It better still be there. Getting to the room was a pain. MP Security’s layouts are always a bitch to sneak around. Marlowe’s influence in this one almost screwed me up,” Eren sounded irritated as he leaned over Armin’s shoulder to point at a screen._

_“You can give him a call once we’re done. I’m looking forward to his reaction when he finds out at 3am that we beat another one of his designs,” Armin let out a malicious chuckle that didn’t fit his character._

_“Still bitter that he insulted your binary code breaker?”_

_“No, it’s more about him trying to discredit CryptoLab.”_

_Eren’s expression turned sour, and he turned back around to picked up a roll of bandages. “Well, let’s get this over with then. We’ll start warming up. Mikasa, let me wrap your ankle-”_

Armin clicked to speed up the video and slowed it down again when video-Eren’s hand waved in front of the camera. Another video player popped up in the upper middle monitor 2 showing the empty parking lot around the giant building everyone recognized as West Hermiha Bank. “By this time, I’ve taken over their main security system. What you see here is what’s really happening while the guards are watching a pre-recorded video from a few days prior.”

The audience watched video-Eren and video-Mikasa leave the van in monitor 6, and they would have missed the two expertly sneak into the large bank if Armin hadn’t pointed them out.

Armin paused all three recordings and swiveled around to face the detective. “I’m not allowed to show you anything that happens inside. Do you need to see more?”

Levi pulled his gaze from the monitors. “Mikasa, can we see your ankle?”

She narrowed her eyes but lifted her left pant leg to show the white wrappings. “It’s a minor sprain. It should be healed in two days.”

Levi nodded. “I’m mostly convinced of your innocence,” he said almost grudgingly. “If you give us a copy of the tapes and contract, we can keep them on file to disprove false accusations that will undoubtedly be thrown your way. We’ll question your client in the next few days.”

“Sure,” Eren agreed, “whatever helps our case.”

**~~~~~**

“So, any other questions?” Eren asked, swinging his feet as he sat on the balance beam.

While Armin prepared the material, everyone else gathered in the gym. Oluo and Petra sat on a flat bench to the side, Gunther and Eld settled themselves on two exercise machines, and Eren and Mikasa made themselves comfortable on the balance beam with their legs dangling. Levi remained standing, arms crossed, leaning against the wall opposite to them.

Eren bristled when the short detective wrinkled his nose at something. The gym was his pride and joy; every inch of the room had been carefully calculated to reinforce its structure, and no expense had been spared to ensure the highest of quality. The man could at least be polite and hide his distaste for whatever miniscule detail was bothering him.

He didn’t know why they kept butting heads. Levi just rubbed him wrong. Eren was a friendly guy – he could even charm thugs! – but every word between them irked him more. Like the next comment.

“Why did you choose to base your company in the ghettoes? Somewhere nicer, like Yalkell District, would probably make it less shady,” Levi asked.

Eren gritted his teeth, “I don’t see how that’s relevant to this case.” He could feel Mikasa to his left bristle as well, but it was so subtle that only he could tell. He placed his left hand on the balance beam, overlapping his little finger with hers to reassure his sister that it was fine.

Levi noticed the action and arched an eyebrow. Eren couldn’t tell what the man was thinking. “I’m just trying to understand you three. What’s driving you. What kind of people you are. How you operate. How you make your decisions.”

“This is the safest part of Ovrud and rent’s cheap,” Eren retorted. “We’re just making an honest living, like the rest of you.”

Levi studied the brunette’s face. “One last question, then. And answer honestly. It will be the deciding factor in what I choose to do with you.”

“What do-”

Levi cut him off. “How did you get into this business? Remember, honesty. I’m not going to arrest you.”

Eren exchanged a glance with Mikasa, holding a silent conversation with just their eyes, years of familiarity allowing them to understand each other perfectly.

_Should we tell them?_

_I don’t trust him._

_Neither do I._

_A squeaky clean, low-key version then._

Eren turned back to the detective with his guard up and nodded.

“This was always a common interest between the three of us. And after watching ‘The Inside Heist’ during middle school, our imagination took off and we thought up this insane idea to pull heists for a living. We studied like crazy and knocked on a hundred doors until someone took pity and let us test his personal vault. From there, it was a string of good luck.

“His name landed us odd jobs here and there. Months later, some idiot tried to break into his vault and got caught by our modifications. Our name spread quickly after that. Then Bank of Rose almost got breached, so every bank, museum, casino, rich dude wanted to tighten up their security. There’s only one other company in Sina in this business, so we were suddenly flooded with requests.”

When Eren said nothing more, Levi asked, “How do we know you didn’t try to rob Bank of Rose to boost business?”

“That’s two questions,” the brunette said stiffly.

“Just answer the question, brat.”

Eren shot him a glare. “Because we were busy getting plastered at Armin’s 21st birthday party that night.”

“Oh really?” There was a hint of condescending amusement in Levi’s tone. “How long have you been doing this?”

“Officially, two years and…nine months. Unofficially, over three. We had to set up a company when the jobs became too big to be paid by cash. Our bank deposits were starting to look like drug deals…” Eren grinned sheepishly.

A corner of Levi’s lips twitched unnoticeably at that. “How’s the pay?”

Eren shrugged. “Enough to pay the bills, enjoy our hobbies, and take an occasional vacation.”

“And the market?”

“Last question,” Eren warned, fed up with the interrogation. “Sina is the richest city in this country and has a population of around 1 million. There are over 80 bank branches, 27 casinos, 11 auction houses, 10 major museums, 15 prisons, 38 retail jewelry stores, and over 3000 personal high-security vaults. There are confirmed plans for 7 banks, 2 casinos, and 1 auction house to finish within the next 5 years, which will all want their vaults checked. Plus, not all jobs ask for us to break in; some just want an analysis. Business will be fine for a while.”

Levi reconsidered his impression of the brunette. It seemed this airhead had another side to him that was as sharp and precise as a diamond scalpel. “Looks like you know your shit.”

Eren pointed a thumb towards his sister sitting next to him. “It’s thanks to Mikasa this company is still running. She makes sure I don’t do anything too stupid.”

The girl tugged her red scarf up to hide a smile. She glanced at him said, “I couldn’t stop you from doing the operation a day early because you got impatient. We wouldn’t be suspects if you had stuck to the schedule,” she teased.

“So, _sir_. Are we done?” He asked with sarcastic emphasis on “sir”.

Levi studied the boy critically. He uncrossed his arms and stalked across the room, looking very much like a predator closing in on its prey, his chilling gray eyes boring into Eren’s. The brunette couldn’t stop himself from leaning back, away from those piercing orbs that commanded his attention. They came closer and closer until silver was all he could see.

Suddenly, he was falling backwards off the beam with a yelp. He reached for Mikasa just as she tried to catch his arm without falling off herself, but before they made contact, a strong hand shot out to grab a fistful of Eren’s shirt. Eren was hauled back onto the beam and his chest pulled down until his face was mere inches from Levi’s. _Too close._

There was a cocky twist to Levi’s lips. “I want you on my team for this case. You, your sister, and Arlert.”

Eren went still for several seconds, trying to process what the detective said and regain his balance at the same time. Abruptly, he ripped Levi’s hand off of his shirt, violently let out the breath he hadn’t realized he was holding, and exclaimed for the second time that morning, “What?!”

“You heard me.” The raven-haired man took a step back in that cool, collected way which pricked Eren’s nerves. “I want your sorry ass on my investigation team to catch the dickheads that robbed the casino.”

Eren stared. _What the hell was he saying?_ Just half an hour ago, they were suspects, and now they were being recruited to do this guy’s dirty work. “No fucking way. I’m not working for you. We already have a job, if you hadn’t noticed, and I’m not getting us involved in anything dangerous.”

“Why not? Scared?”

“No, but you said there’re dead bodies. I won’t endanger my family because you’re too dumb to figure it out yourself.”

Levi’s eye twitched. “You’ll be paid.”

“I bet it’s less than what we normally earn. Anyway, we have to finish up yesterday’s job and we already have a job lined up for next week,” Eren said, feeling satisfaction at the annoyance building on Levi’s face.

“Actually,” Armin interrupted as he walked in from the side hall holding a flash drive between his fingers, “next week’s client just rescheduled. The only other request in queue is from Mrs. Gabinia. The middle-aged lady who’s been stalking you over the phone. I personally prefer working with Detective Ackerman than her.”

Eren cringed at the mention of the crazy, rich cougar that had creepily latched onto him after one meeting. “There’s no one else?”

Armin shook his head apologetically, “Everyone wants November or later.”

Eren fell quiet. His eyes flickered to Levi, then to the four officers watching from the sidelines, and back to Levi. The detective, who was still standing too close for comfort, folded his arms expectantly. “Well?”

“Mikasa, how close are we to reaching the monthly target?”

“We’re shy by around $2,000.”

“Damn,” Eren mumbled to himself, “we have a $300 job at the end of the month but…”

“I’m waiting, Yeager.”

The brunette gritted his teeth. He wanted to strangle the insufferable man. “Alright,” he spat back, “we’ll do it. But I’m setting the conditions now.” He took a moment to gather his thoughts. “You’ll pay us $2,000 for 100 hours of work over seven days, 50% upfront and 50% and the end. That’s 33 hours per person or however you want to split the hours between the three of us, from tomorrow, which is Friday, until next Saturday. We get Sunday off, but we’ll be on call the rest of the time. If the case is solved before 100 hours are up, we’ll still be at your disposal for the remaining hours for any case until Saturday. We’ll just wing the rest.”

“$2,000?” Levi repeated, looking at him with mild disbelief. “That’s bullshit. $1,500.”

Eren scoffed. “Oh come on, I’m already taking into consideration your crappy public budget. You’re getting a huge discount, which breaks down to $20 per hour – way below our usual rate. Mikasa will have a contract with these terms drafted before you leave,” he said with finality.

“That’s-” Levi pinched the bridge of his nose. “…Tch, whatever. Erwin can deal with it.”

Petra stifled a giggle as she pictured his confrontation with Commander Erwin Smith.

**~~~~~**

Pulling out his phone from the inside pocket of his jacket, Levi walked out of the living room into the kitchen to give Erwin an update. Before rounding the corner, he glanced back at the seven people chatting politely and saw Eren get up to whisper into Mikasa’s ear. After responding with a nod, the girl said a few words while pointing at her brother’s shirt and she smiled when he looked down at his front in alarm. Levi snorted when a light blush dusted Eren’s cheeks and the kid strode purposefully towards the hallway with his inside-out shirt already pulled half off. _What an idiot._

Erwin picked up after two rings. _“Levi? How did it go? Did you get the Yeagers?”_

Levi sighed. “They’re innocent. They have a solid alibi.”

_“…What about the van?”_

“Right here, but they’ve proven it’s not the van at the casino.”

 _“So this lead was a bust,”_ Erwin said quietly. Levi could tell that his friend’s mind was drifting away from their phone conversation, already running through next possible actions and strategies.

“Eyebrows, you may like what we did find though,” Levi reeled his friend back in. “I don’t know if it’s coincidence or by design, but these three brats claim to be vault experts. I’ve only seen a little of their work, but they seem competent.”

 _“…you’ve recruited them,”_ the Commander guessed. Damn, Erwin knew him too well.

“They’re willing to take a look at the crime scene this evening, but under contract they’ll work with us from noon tomorrow until next Saturday.” Levi paused before giving him the bad news, hoping his superior wouldn’t argue too much. “But we’re paying them $2,000.”

 _“...”_ It was obvious from the silence that Erwin wasn’t thrilled at the cost. _“Can you negotiate?”_ They were already tight on funding, often causing them to forego equipment upgrades.

“The stubborn brat won’t take anything lower.”

The sigh that followed was resigned. _“Fine, I’ll deal with the budget. I trust your judgment.”_

Levi was surprised at the easy acceptance; usually, his liberal use of funding led to lectures on irresponsible spending. It was deeply unsettling, but despite the niggling suspicion in the back of his mind, he wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth, especially one from Erwin.

“Hn,” was all Levi said, but he knew his friend understood his appreciation. “Have someone run a background check on Armin Arlert, the blond kid in the pictures. He’s part of their team. We’ll head back to the station after I sign the contract. For three snot-nosed kids, they’re unexpectedly well-organized.”

_“Is that a compliment I hear, Levi? You’re getting soft.”_

“Shut it.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Is everyone in character? Let me know if you like how it’s going!
> 
> November 17, 2015


	4. We're Not Amateurs

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Team Recon proves they're awesome. Levi gets pissed off for several reasons.

**Chapter 4: We’re Not Amateurs**

It was around 7pm by the time the three members of Recon Inc. finished their write-up and debriefing of West Hermiha Bank’s security analysis. Debriefs were tedious affairs, but this one had been worse than usual. The pompous client was predictably displeased that the security of their vault had been breached, especially upon finding out about the four guards who would undoubtedly threaten to sue their employer when they woke up from their unwilling naps: one tied to a women’s bathroom stall, one stuck in a large trash bin, and two stuffed in storage closets, courtesy of Mikasa.

Eren guessed that the client’s clever plan had been for certified _amateur_ penetration testers to fail job so they could use the favorable results as advertising. They obviously had not expected kids in their early twenties to successfully shut down the multi-million dollar vault system and make it out without getting caught. Now there was an officially filed report of the vault’s subpar rating.

_That’s what you get for trying to cheat the system, you dumb fuck._

The sun had already set when Eren pulled his car into the casino parking garage. The three were met by bright spotlights shining down on the hole in the side of the casino building and two guards with guns standing vigilant until the vault could be re-sealed. It looked like the police investigators had already finished their business and cleared out.

From one glance at the destruction of merely the wall, it finally hit Eren that these vault breakers were in a very different business. While Recon Inc. breached vaults for constructive purposes with diligence and care, these criminals cared nothing for the vaults, only about taking what they wanted and stomping on masterpieces like inconsequential ants.

Levi, who had been waiting next to the roped off area of the wall, said nothing at Eren’s stunned expression. The boy barely acknowledged him as he held up the rope for the three young adults to duck under, already fully engrossed in solving how the demolition was carried out.

Levi handed over three pairs of gloves. “Stick together. I’ll follow behind.” The somber mood of the nearly deserted crime scene kept him from making his usual crass remarks.

Eren and Mikasa, both holding tablets and carrying dark gray backpacks, stepped up to the rubble while Armin remained beside Levi. “This is their expertise. I handle the digital components,” the blond clarified when he saw the questioning arch of the older man’s eyebrow.

Mikasa bent down to study the chunks of concrete lying on the outside pavement. She used several fingers to dust the surfaces of various pieces and lifted each finger to her nose to sniff lightly. She turned to the detective, her blank face giving away none of her thoughts. “These don’t look or smell like the typical explosives residue. Detective, we will collect samples from the site.” She was met with an equally blank face and a nod.

The two siblings picked through the hole diligently, sealing samples and snapping pictures. Once inside the casino, they followed police markings down the hall to the next crumbled wall and descended two flights of stairs to the sublevels.

Eren’s insides squirmed when he saw the outline indicating where the first body had lain. He wasn’t sure if it was for his or his sister’s benefit when he quietly called out to Mikasa, whose brow was pinched as her dull eyes fell upon the white lines, “Mikasa, let’s go.” She turned quickly to follow the reassuring sound of her brother’s voice, and both of them staunchly ignored the rest of the outlines as they marched through the corridors.

Eren could tell they were nearing the vault as he noted the inactive security measures along the way, all of them unnaturally still, as if life had been sucked out of the machinery. The physical security obstacles didn’t seem too difficult to evade. There were a few tricky points, but nothing a professional couldn’t overcome with careful planning and a nimble body. Security for the vault itself, however, was imposing. The busted keypad was not simply a numerical pad but one combined with 9 random letters of the English alphabet, increasing the number of permutations exponentially. The thick metal door was made up of several layers, and accessing its electrical components would have been problematic if the perpetrators hadn’t already blasted the covering.

Eren stepped up to the door eagerly, curious to see what type of setup had been used for the mechanics. He was disappointed to see that half of the electronics had been ripped apart. Ire at the destruction of something so beautiful bubbled within him. Call him a machine junkie, but engineering was his passion, especially now that he could build his own James Bond-esque equipment.

Peering inside the hardware compartment, what he could see of the remaining circuitry was skillfully crafted. Eren set his backpack on the ground and rifled through it for a slim toolkit. He detached torn wires and carefully unscrewed the broken circuit board embedded deep inside. Using pliers, he extracted the board and set it on his toolkit case. He then hummed in surprise and reached in again to unscrew and extract a smaller board which he had almost overlooked hidden deep in the corner. He brought the second board close to his face, examining every inch of both sides, noting how it was undamaged.

“Armin,” Eren turned to his friend and handed him the board with a smirk. “This might be a Garrison design. If I’m right, you’re going to have fun.” Accepting the piece of hardware with almost reverent fingers, Armin’s eyes suddenly gleamed. Garrison designs were fascinating and challenging to crack, and the controls were so well protected that they rarely got to dissect them. “Let’s head to the surveillance room to take a look at the program.”

“What’s a Garrison design?” Levi asked, causing Eren to jump; the detective had been so quiet that he had forgotten his presence. The man had a complicated expression on his face that made him seem even more irritable, as if he was holding himself back from speaking.

“Garrison Safe Company is a manufacturer of security equipment, including vaults. They specialize in cybersecurity rather than physical security measures,” Eren said thoughtfully. “If we check the security equipment and alarms, I bet they have failsafe mechanisms, just like the vault’s second circuit board. Our thieves probably had to blast their way out because they didn’t know Garrison usually has a secondary cybersecurity layer that kicks in when the first one goes down.”

Levi furrowed his brow. “Then why was the vault shut down if the second layer should have taken its place?”

“We can’t answer that until we see the program.” It was Mikasa who answered as she walked out of the vault. She was zipping her backpack shut and swinging it onto her back. “It looks like they just walked in and walked out. I lifted footprints, though.”

“How do you know it’s the culprit’s?”

“This person took unusual steps, as if they were searching for something.”

Eren saw Levi scowl and thought he heard the man mutter darkly, “those incompetent fools.” but he ignored the comment, as it was obviously not directed at Mikasa.

“So… surveillance room?” Eren looked at Levi expectantly.

They walked through the empty and nearly silent corridors, the only sound being the rustle of their clothes and clicks of Levi’s shoes on the glossy linoleum flooring – only one set of footsteps. Eren indulged in a slight feeling of pride at his own team’s stealth; they wore custom shoes he and Mikasa designed a year ago to eliminate noise while sneaking around. His pride grew when it seemed Levi noticed the lack of sound in their movements as well, evident by the momentary falter in the clicking steps before the detective continued with no change to his gait. _Is he confident or arrogant?_ Eren wondered.

Once inside the surveillance room, Armin immediately headed toward the workstation _without_ the white, human-shaped outline while Eren and Mikasa stared at the spot with identical grimaces. The outline of the outstretched arm seemed to reach out to them as if was trying to latch onto their ankles and drag them toward the dried bloodstain on the carpet. Eren averted his eyes hastily, shoved fisted hands into his jean pockets, and followed Armin who was taking out a tablet and flash drive from his own backpack.

Armin swiveled around in the chair to address Levi. “Detective, I’ll try to recover as much data as possible, but is there anything specific you’re looking for?”

“Any information you can get on safety deposit box F137. We only know it belongs to initials D.S.”

The boy got to work, crawling under the workstation with the tablet to fiddle with the computer tower sitting underneath the desk. After connecting the tablet, he crawled back out to sit in the chair and began typing precisely on the keyboard.

Minutes later, Armin gasped, eyes wide and almost sparkling, “It’s beautiful.” His typing became frantic. “This is definitely by Garrison. It’s written in Siloscript – that’s their ‘secret’ programming language. Only a handful of people know it, which is partly why their cybersecurity so hard to hack. I only figured it out because we’ve come across it during our jobs. Wow… this must be a newer release. The dynamic type system looks like it now supports…,” the genius continued to ramble, slowly zoning out the rest of the room as his partners zoned him out as well.

Eren chuckled and grabbed Mikasa’s hand to pull her to the other side of the room, as far from the bloodstain as possible. Mikasa started scanning documents pinned haphazardly on the bulletin board while Eren examined the card scanner at the door, both listening to their best friend’s childish delight with faint smiles.

Levi, eyeing the blond skeptically, followed to lean against the wall near the siblings, close enough to watch but far enough to not get in the way. “Don’t you need to…” he gestured at the boy who was quietly exclaiming programming jargon over what looked like gibberish on the monitors.

Eren shrugged; it was nothing new. “Nah, Armin’s just having a codegasm and neither of us understand enough to be any help. He’ll calm down in a few.” The brunette returned his attention to the card reader, leaving Levi to muse on the sidelines.

 

~~~~~

The room had soon quieted to shuffling of papers and tapping of keys. The mumblings from the blond hacker had ceased a while ago after the boy suddenly let out a triumphant “oh!”. Levi watched the three work in silence, only stepping out of the room once to update Erwin. Their concentration hadn’t wavered as they made their way through the room like a professional forensics team, so in sync that they could communicate without exchanging words.

Glancing at the clock, he saw that 30 minutes had inched past while he contemplated the three young adults he had recruited on a whim. By now, Levi had seen enough to admit these kids weren’t sham amateurs; they were capable of everything they boasted, and he was sure they hadn’t revealed all their skills. Yet.

“Armin?”

Levi jerked his head toward the first word spoken in 25 minutes and saw Eren walking to the workstation while studying the clipboard in his hands.

“How are you with the repairs?”

“Hmm, around 40%,” the boy in question answered hazily, still focused on the scripts running across the screen. “I don’t think I can recover much more. They did quite a number on this system. What do you need, Eren?”

“Can you pull up the card scanner log and the login history for the workstation you’re sitting at?” The brunette flipped a page, and another, and then flipped back.

Levi found himself peering around the boy’s arm to take a look.

Eren handed over the clipboard, allowing Levi to flip through rows of handwritten names, dates, and signatures. “It looks like surveillance officers are also required to clock in and out on paper. Detective, you said there was only one body in here, right? Based on the rotation schedule, there should be two on duty at all times. James Marley was the second guy for last night’s shift, but only one person clocked in according to this paper log.”

Levi caught on immediately. “So you want to see if an imposter took his shift.”

“I got it!” Armin called over his shoulder. A window with rows of names and timestamps was open on one of the screens. “John Klein, the dead officer, swiped into the room at 10:52pm for the graveyard shift. The evening shift swiped out at 11:01pm and 11:02pm.” He leaned forward for a better view.

“Marley didn’t swipe in until 11:08pm.” Armin turned to another screen. “The history for this workstation shows that he didn’t log in last night, which means he used Klein’s station after killing him. The card reader wasn’t used again.”

“Do you have footage of these halls at the time ‘Marley’ swiped in?” Mikasa asked as she stepped up to Eren’s side.

“We’re in luck. This data survived the hack.” Armin took a minute to locate and open a video. He fast-forwarded until the timestamp showed 23:07:04. “Okay, Marley’s swipe should happen in around a minute.” The four watched in tense silence as the white digits grew closer to 11:08. Levi didn’t notice he was holding his breath until a man in a security uniform stepped into the video. All eyes were trained on the tall figure as he stood in front of the surveillance room door, glanced around himself, swiped a white card, and slipped into the room with more stealth than an average guard.

Armin rewound the video until they had a clear shot of the man’s face and then pulled up Marley’s profile picture on another window.

“That’s definitely not Marley,” Eren murmured as he compared the two pictures.

No one spoke as Armin flipped between security videos to trace the man’s movements back to when he entered the building’s underground loading dock, after which he disappeared from all footage.

“That’s a disguise. Fake skin over the face. That’s what I would do.” Eren squinted at the culprit in the frozen video. “We don’t know what he looks like, but at least we know his physique.”

They stared at the screen in silence, each lost in their thoughts.

Levi snapped himself out of his speculations. Nothing would be gained from guessing if he didn’t have the information to base them on. “Arlert, anything on D.S.?” He asked.

Rapid tapping on the keyboard resumed. “Mmm, I’ve recovered all the fingerprints but I’m still running account details. The main problem is matching everything up correctly. Garrison designed this so each piece of information is siloed so the hacker won’t know which account matches to which safe. Hence the name Siloscript

“But it looks our thieving friends managed to hack it before the program disconnected everything. The hacker did a sloppy job, though, so I can assume he’s not an expert. I’ll see what I can do…” Armin trailed off back into his world of code.

Another 10 minutes passed before the boy’s excited shout of “aha!” brought them back. Armin swiveled around in his chair with a satisfied grin. “D.S. are initials for Darius Sanders or Djel Sanes or Dominique Serre. The National Identification Number bank is corrupted, but the names should get you started, detective.”

 

~~~~~

The three from Recon and the detective stood awkwardly in the parking garage next to their respective cars. They had gleaned all they could, and the evidence had been handed over to Levi. With permission, Mikasa kept several samples to run tests in her own lab at Recon HQ. It seemed he had little faith in his own forensics team, so he and Mikasa had agreed that it would be prudent to have a second set of eyes. (It was one of the most stilted conversations Eren had ever observed.)

The artificial light from the ceiling cast shadows on their faces, making Levi’s bored expression look like a threatening glare. Eren pushed down his instinctive response to glare back, reminding himself about Armin’s lectures on not picking fights with clients. “So… I guess we’re done here. Give us a call if you need anything tomorrow.” When he received no reply, he rolled his eyes and turned toward his car.

“Crypto-Labyrinth.”

Eren froze mid-turn at Levi’s sudden statement. The two words were spoken quietly, but it might as well have been shouted the way it echoed in his ear. His eyes flickered to Armin. Cursing internally and knowing denial and evasion wouldn’t work on the perceptive man, he spoke without turning back. “How do you know that name?”

Levi snorted condescendingly. “You thought we wouldn’t run a check on Arlert? Age 23, Mitras U graduate, no family, no criminal background, registered owner of Crypto-Labyrinth. We found the pretty website, but there’s barely any information on it.”

The brunette forced his shoulders to relax and faced the detective. They had nothing to hide. Their second company was authentic and completely legal. Eren had only withheld the information for personal anonymity’s sake; they didn’t need the police digging any further into their lives, especially their past. “Crypto-Labyrinth is our other business. We design and manufacture safes and vaults, just like MP Security and Garrison. Simple as that.”

“Why didn’t you tell us this earlier?”

“It wasn’t important.” Eren shrugged. “You don’t have to get all pissy about it.” He could see Levi’s jaw clench slightly.

“Did it not cross your underdeveloped mind that this could affect how you’ll work for us?”

Eren had to press a hand to Mikasa's wrist to calm her when she took an indignant step forward. “Why would it? It doesn’t change our expertise, and we’re not building a vault for you. And by the way, we charge extra for that, and there’s no way your broke ass police department can afford it.”

“You- …Tch, fuck this.” Levi’s voice suddenly became frighteningly chilling, and Eren had to stop himself from taking a step back when he suddenly felt like prey again, much like he had back in the gym. “Tomorrow. Tomorrow you spill. And you _will not_ leave any fucking thing out.” The detective had one of the most terrifying expressions he had ever seen on a person, and Eren knew he had pushed too far.

“Y-yes, sir.”

“Repeat. What will you do tomorrow?”

“T-tell you everything, sir.”

With a final menacing glare that promised pain if they dared to disobey, the man got in his car with a slam and drove off, tires screeching, leaving three vault experts wondering if they would survive the week.

 

~~~~~

Late that night, Levi was again woken by the incessant ringing of his phone. He had gone to bed only several hours earlier after dropping the samples and evidence off with the station’s shitty forensics department. His hand shot out to cut off the sound; there was no way he would let Eyebrows ruin his sleep two consecutive nights. Yet seconds later it rang once more, only to be silenced again. But finally on the fifth call, he groaned and answered, “What now?!”

“Levi!! You finally picked up!” Grimacing, he held the phone at arm’s length to protect his ear from the enthusiastic shout. “How could you ignore meeee? Aren’t we best friends?” He could vividly imagine the maniacal grin behind the forensics specialist’s tone.

“Hanji, it’s,” Levi glanced at the screen, “…3am. What do you want?” He almost snarled.

“Oh, is it that late already? Time is a fickle pickle when you’re having fun,” Hanji said unapologetically in a sing-song voice.

“If you’re not going to say anything useful, I’m hanging up.”

“Awww, so cute. Don’t try to deny your love. Erwin told me you were practically begging on your knees to work with me.”

Levi smothered his face in the pillow and didn’t bother correcting her. “Both of you need to jump off a cliff. Make it a family gathering at the bottom of the ravine if you will,” Levi muttered darkly to himself, but apparently Hanji heard.

“Oh ho, are you sure? You wouldn’t know what to do without-”

“Goddammit, Hanji!”

The line went quiet. Instantly, Levi was wide-awake. Hanji was rarely quiet, and it was never a good thing. Her tone was uncharacteristically subdued when she finally spoke.

“I’ve identified the weapon.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: The story will pick up after this chapter!
> 
> November 28, 2015


	5. Zand Corporation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Levi demonstrations his colorful vocabulary. Our two favorite boys get to spend quality time together.

**Chapter 5: Zand Corporation**

“So what’s this I hear about adopting stray puppies?” Was the first thing Hanji exclaimed when she flung open the door to her lab, a maniacal grin stretching across her face. She yanked Levi inside by the right lapel of his black suit jacket and dragged him to a chair, ignoring his grunt of discomfort as she looked down expectantly.

“They’re contractors, not pets,” Levi said as he tried to smooth out the wrinkles she had created during her manhandling. He eyed her disheveled clothes, scruffily pulled back hair, and smudged glasses with mild revulsion.

“Sure, sure, whatever you want to call them.” The forensics specialist paid his glare no mind and leaned down to plant her face inches from his with no regard for personal space. He held his breath but stopped himself from pulling away. “When do I get to meet the cuties? I took a peek at their profiles and they’re adorable little things! You’re going to bring them right?”

“You make it sound like a classroom show and tell. God that’s repulsive, brush your fucking teeth, woman,” Levi almost gagged as he roughly shoved Hanji’s face aside and guessed that she had pulled an all-nighter again. “You can shit on the brats later today.”

“Ooooo, all three? The little lady will be a joy to poke; her frown looks like your resting bitch face on a good day. But I think I’ll have more fun with her brother,” she cackled, stepping back to lean her hip against a cluttered worktable. “He’s the type that’s tough but easily flustered.”

He gave her a flat look and wished for caffeine. “Don’t traumatize them. They’re not free. Any time you waste is coming out of your budget.”

“Protective already, Levi? You’re secretly a mama bear aren’t you!”

The man’s unamused expression didn’t falter as Hanji gushed at his fictional maternal instincts. For a fraction of a second his eyes flickered over to one of Hanji’s cats, the fat one, peeking its head out from behind haphazardly stacked lab equipment. If only it would knock the pile over.

“Oi, shit for brains, tell me what you found.”

“Oh they’re not just cute, they’re clever little mice! Did you know, they built the Ribera Auction House vault! It’s rumored to be a treasure trove of out-of-the-box engineering. Do you think they would share the blueprints if I ask nicely?”

Levi’s deadpan stare darkened.

Hanji faltered. She seemed to get the silent threat because she pouted and grabbed a thin manila folder off her cluttered desk. There were only a handful of pages inside. “Yes yes, here you go, you impatient grouch. There’s little public information on the weapon itself, but I know its maker. Guess where I saw it.” She gave him no time to answer, not that he would have. “At the weapons trade show a couple months ago.”

“That you snuck off to during work hours.” Levi grimaced at the memory. “And dumped the blame on me when your lab exploded.”

“It was for science. And see how it came in handy,” she waved off her offense with an unrepentant grin, handing over the folder. The top page was a detailed observation of the weapon found at the crime scene followed by a copy of relevant patents and what looked to be information on the institution which developed the technology. Levi skimmed the pages quickly for keywords.

“Isn’t Zand Corporation the research & dev giant that almost went bankrupt recently? The one that tanked in a day.”

“Correct!” Hanji nodded at him like a proud parent. “They dissolved a couple of patents responsible for bringing in a huge chunk of revenue, including this weapon. It was supposed to be settled privately, but the media somehow caught wind of it and caused a mass panic sell-off of Zand stocks. It’ll take years for Zand to recover, if they even last that long. On top of that, all research documentation on the technology is gone. Poof!” Hanji explained with a flare of her hands.

“But some sadistic joker got their hands on one,” Levi fingered the corner of the last page as he reread it. “Maybe more than one.”

“They made front-page news for days, so you should have plenty of source material.”

Nodding his thanks, Levi shut the folder and stood. “Anything else?”

“Nope, that’s it,” she said, popping the ‘p’. Hanji was already skipping eagerly towards a microscope on the desk he was standing next to, waving him away. “Shoo, I’m picking apart particles from the shoeprints your puppies lifted. Get it? Shoe, shoo? Oh, and be sure to drop by with them later. Happy hunting, Mr. Detective!”

Levi backed away from his overzealous friend. “Do everyone a favor and lay off the drugs,” the man said sarcastically over his shoulder as he strode out, ignoring the “no can do!” that followed him.

He didn’t open the folder again until he was in the comfort of his private office—well as comfortable as a second-hand office in a decades-old police station could get. He had done what he could to renovate the room. The yellowing walls and ceiling had been repainted in unblemished white; hideous furniture was replaced with tasteful, minimalistic designs; and a more efficient filing and storage system had been implemented. To his utmost displeasure, nothing could be done about the ancient carpet.

Levi settled into his ergonomic office chair and booted up his laptop, cursing himself for forgetting his morning coffee. As he waited for the operating system to load, he read Hanji’s conclusions about the weapon that had killed the casino employees.

As he suspected, the bullet was intended to explode on impact. The casing was constructed like a typical mushrooming bullet so that it was more likely to stay inside the target, but the newly designed core and jacket gave the explosives a greater spread of damage than anything seen before, rupturing everything within the blast radius. Death was guaranteed if the bullet penetrated anywhere in the torso, and limbs hit by the bullet were goners.

No wonder the government had been opposed to revealing the technology to the public.

Opening a web browser, Levi ran searches on Zand Corporation. He also took advantage of his police status and Hanji’s backdoor hacks to access restricted databases.

Levi felt the thrill of a new mystery stirring in his gut as he dove headfirst into the investigation.

 

~~~~~

When Recon arrived at the police station minutes before noon, only Arlert and the Yeager brat walked through the double doors. While they both carried the same dark gray backpacks over hooded utility jackets, Arlert was dressed smartly underneath in slacks, casual sneakers, and a blue polo shirt, which was a great contrast to Yeager’s oil-stained jeans, converse shoes, and a black t-shirt with a cube-shaped maze printed in the center—he recognized it as Crypto-Labyrinth’s logo. They were engrossed in a conversation that had the brunet grinning mischievously.

“–totally undetectable, delayed stunning mechanism that kicks in only once you…” Eren’s expression soured as soon as he noticed Levi walking towards them in the brightly lit lobby.

“Hello, Detective Ackerman,” Armin greeted amicably before his friend could open his mouth. “I hope you had a pleasant morning?”

Unaccustomed to humoring acquaintances with pleasantries, Levi grunted a sound that could be perceived both as a yes and a no. “Where’s the girl?”

Eren gave Levi the stink eye, but the man was already turning back the way he came. “We don’t all need to be here. Mikasa is working on breaking down the explosives residue. If you need her, we can give her a call.”

“So!” Armin interrupted hastily, “How can we help?” He towed Eren by the wrist as they followed Levi deeper into the building to the elevators. Lucky for all three, the elevator doors slid opened immediately and they were able to fill the duration of the lift with discussion about the case rather than awkward silence.

“So far, we tracked the murder weapon to a company called Zand Corporation.” The detective pressed the “3” button with one precise push. “It’s a newly revealed technology that hasn’t been approved for market yet. It would have been primarily used by the military if they hadn’t lost it.”

Both boys looked at him to elaborate.

Levi huffed impatiently, “Zand forked over a lethal weapon to trigger-happy psychos like a gambling addict whoring their daughters for chump change.” The elevator ding announced their arrival on the third floor. He led Eren and Armin down a drab hallway and through a wooden office door on the right. “Except it looks like they got jack shit out of the transaction, so the likelihood of blackmail is high.”

Armin shifted uncomfortably at the picture Levi’s crass words painted, while the man calmly sat down behind his large, tidy, L-shaped desk. Eren, on the other hand, smothered an inappropriate grin as he nabbed a chair on the other side of the small but spotless room, tugging at his friend to do the same.

“We need to find out why they gave away something worth millions and who now has it.”

Levi watched Eren furrow his brow. “Zand… I’m pretty sure we know someone from Zand.” The young engineer scrunched his nose in thought. “There was a sales rep that called about becoming a supplier for CryptoLab. What did he call for?” He looked at Armin for help.

The blond shrugged. “It may have been for metal? You turned them down after they showed you samples; something about it being too brittle.”

The brunet perked up. “Marco Pott, or Blot. That’s the guy’s name.” He swung his backpack off and dug inside for a tablet identical to the one Armin had used the day before. A silent minute of tapping later, “Marco _Bott_. It was around a year ago for a new metal compound. I ran a few stress tests on the material but the results didn’t meet my standards. Super nice guy, though.”

“Are you still in contact with him?” Levi asked.

Suddenly, a loud ringing cut through the small room. Eren scrabbled for the phone in the right pocket of his faded jeans, looking apologetic as he answered the call. “Hey Mikasa, what’s up?”

The voice on the other end was unintelligible from where Levi sat. He struggled to understand the conversation from one side of the exchange.

“Sure, send me the list. Homemade? Unlikely. I’ll check for matches.” More garbled sounds could be heard as Eren sandwiched the cellphone between his ear and shoulder to free his hands. “U-huh, yeah…” He tapped on the tablet again, and Levi was curious to see what the brunet was doing on the screen. “Yup, I see it. Thanks.” A slight pout appeared on the young man’s face. “I know I know, I’ll be careful. I _know_. Talktoyoulater, bye!” Eren smiled sheepishly as he hung up and stuffed the phone back into his pocket.

Levi arched his eyebrow expectantly.

“Mikasa sent over the mass spec readings from the explosives. We can try to match the elemental composition to existing configurations in public patents, science publications, private patents that we’re not supposed to have access to,” Eren whispered the last part conspiratorially with a rueful grin. “You won’t report us, will you?”

Levi leaned back in his chair and crossed one leg over the other. “Give me results, and I heard nothing.”

The brunet’s grin turned impish and he ducked his head back down to the tablet, quietly typing on it with the pads of his fingers and occasional clicks of nails hitting the screen. Levi looked over at the blond sitting docilely. “So what are you here for?”

Armin gave a deceptively sweet smile. “I’m here to keep Eren in line.” An indignant harrumph could be heard from Eren but he made no further retort. “Actually, I’m here because it’s Recon’s standard procedure to send at least two agents at the beginning of a job until we determine each of our assignments. I also would like another look at the casino’s cybersecurity.”

Levi observed him for a moment. “That’s fine. I need you to get in touch with Garrison and find out how their supposedly secret programming language leaked.”

He grabbed a sheet of paper and pen and scribbled the location of the room where the security hardware was now sitting. After a conflicted pause, he wrote down another room number and name, almost feeling guilty. “Here, first go to this room to see Hanji Zoe.” He pointed at the second number. “Tell her she needs to get you a level 2 security badge. …Be careful with Hanji. She’ll talk you to death if you don’t cut her off. After you get the badge, you can find everything at the first room number.”

Processing Levi’s warning, Armin was hesitant to take the sheet of paper. “Yes, sir.”

“Don’t let her fawn over you for more than 10 minutes or she’ll never stop. She’s considerably calmer out of her lab.”

Armin heard a quiet snicker from the side, and Levi did as well, “Don’t worry, Yeager, you’ll get your turn with the mad scientist. She thinks you’re the most fascinating out of you three.” That shut the brunet up.

Armin exited the room feeling mildly relieved that he wasn’t the supposed mad scientist’s most favored subject.

“So what have you got,” Levi asked when the blond was gone.

Eren looked up with a frown. “Still running. There’re millions of patents and publications out there. Even after paring down the number by disciplines and date, there are thousands to search through.” He swiped a finger across the tablet and grumbled, “And academic papers are notorious for disorganization and inconsistencies. At least we’re not dealing with biology—I might have terminated our contract if we had to deal with that madhouse.”

“What?”

The brunet slumped in his seat. “Biologists like to live in their own worlds. They rarely crosscheck existing terminology and naming conventions before creating their own. Example, one paper’s ‘K’ subscript ‘b’ can mean the same thing as another paper’s ‘K’ superscript ‘b’ or ‘Kb’. And they–”

“Brat, stop.” Levi cut off Eren’s rant. “I can see you’re passionate about this, but I don’t give a shit. Give the spiel to Hanji or something. Any hits so far?”

Eren scowled. “I got a few within tolerance. Let’s see, one from DARPA, Raytheon, Karanese University, ATK,” He read aloud the incomplete list, “…Zand.” Eyebrows raised, he looked up to meet Levi’s eyes. “Huh. Well, I can guess which one’s jackpot.”

The detective had sat up straight as soon the familiar name was spoken and commanded, “Get Marco Bott on the phone. Let’s see what we can extract from him.”

 

~~~~~

As Eren listened to the ringing on speakerphone, he wanted to sock the asshole. Who cared if Levi was supposed to be some hotshot detective. It didn’t change the fact that the guy had a massive broom handle up his ass and needed to be taught manners.

Despite being shorter than Eren by a few inches, the height difference wasn’t noticeable unless they stood side by side. Levi’s presence easily filled the room when he wanted to be heard, and the combination of the immaculate undercut and that death glare of his was as good as any command shouted by an army general.

Even now, leaning back in a lazy fashion with an arm thrown over the back of his office chair and crossed feet propped up on the desk, the blank-faced man exuded ‘don’t fuck with me—I’ll end you’ vibes, if that was even a thing. But Eren’s sense of self-preservation had frequently skimmed the edge of suicidal.

“Don’t say anything while I’m talking to Marco. He’s a nice guy and you’ll scare him to death.”

Just as Levi began his snide reply, a calm, male voice answered, “Good afternoon, thank you for calling Zand Corporation. Marco Bott speaking.”

“Hey Marco! This is Eren. How have you been?”

“Eren… Yeager?”

“Wow, I’m impressed you remember.”

They heard Marco chuckle, “Well, you were the first and only potential client to send us a report of our products’ shortcomings.”

“Yeah, sorry about that…”

Eren saw Levi’s finger begin to tap impatiently at the small talk and reminded himself that trolling a client was unprofessional. So instead of drawing out the conversation just to annoy the detective, he moved forward to the main topic.

“So, what I want to talk to you about is, my supplier for alloy steel is jacking up their price with the contract renewal. I’m wondering if Zand has any new products that could match its performance and cost.”

“Of course, Mr. Yeager! Our selection of low- and high-alloy steels has increased significantly in the past year. And depending on the order volume, we can customize the alloyant composition to your specifications.”

“Sounds great. But call me Eren. I’m hopefully not an old geezer yet.” With a tiny smirk, he flickered his eyes up to meet Levi’s meaningfully. Sadly, the older man didn’t take the bait. “Anyways, send over the catalog and I’ll take a look.”

“I will do so right away, Eren,” Marco replied, sounding thrilled at the prospect of signing a new client.

“And can we meet in person? Not just about the lineup, I have a few questions about Zand itself, about all that stuff in the news…” Eren faked a worried tone.

“I would be happy to. I understand your concerns, and you have nothing to be worried about.” It didn’t take long for them to schedule a meeting for later in the afternoon. Marco was even more delighted when Eren warned him that a ‘colleague’ may be joining them for the coffee date.

After ending the call, Eren crossed his arms. “There. Done.”

Levi dropped his legs back down to the floor in one fluid movement and looked at him appraisingly. “Not half bad.”

The brunet snorted defiantly even as he felt a tiny bit pleased by the semi-compliment. “You think you could do any better with your prickly personality?” As soon as the words left his mouth, he did a mental facepalm. What was it about this man that caused him to forget the concepts of “professional” and “client” Armin had drilled into him? In the span of 12 hours that Levi was a client of Recon, Eren had expressed more insolence than in his entire history of client interactions combined.

“Is this how you mistreat all your clients?” The detective voiced exactly what Eren had been fretting over. “It’s a wonder your business is still alive.”

Eren reigned in his sigh. “Now what, _sir_?”

“Until we meet Bott, you get the honor of sorting through the bullshit I found on Zand.” Levi pushed one of several stacks of paper towering almost half a foot towards the younger man, who was eying it with trepidation. “This is your stack. Try not to piss yourself in excitement.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay! Hope you enjoyed :)
> 
> January 23, 2016


End file.
